Happy new year to you all! Hasn't this year 2020 been one for the record-books? I do hope you have kept safe, well and even found goodness in the midst of what many are calling our annus horribilis. It's also been a year of transition for many, including me. I'm moving to a new church… Continue reading Moving!
The weight of sorrow sits heavy in these strange days. We’ve been sobered up to know this COVID-19 pandemic is bigger than we expected and will go on far longer than we dared believe. Of course it’s more than the restrictions and frustrations of isolation, more than the steady accumulation of losses, more than this… Continue reading the grief of God is no small thing
Yesterday was the first day of Advent, marking the beginning of the Christian calendar. Advent is an alternative way to mark time, a counter-cultural contrast to the high, holy festival of holiday consumerism. It's a sober start, for sure, beginning by naming all that’s wrong in us and this world, connecting us to the deep… Continue reading Advent and the Decemberists’ A Beginning Song
Today across Canada cannabis has been legalized. No longer restricted to medicinal marijuana, purchasing, possessing and consuming cannabis for recreational use is now legal. A wide conversation has been underway in Canada, with medical, social, policy and practical concerns being raised. Not unexpectedly, in a secular society like Canada, theological matters are notably absent. They… Continue reading A cannabis catechism
I'm reposting today - World Refugee Day - something I wrote almost three years ago - mostly I needed the reminder. I’m a follower of one who began his life as an asylum seeker. I’m a member of a family of faith whose history stretches back to Abraham, and is summarized in refugee terms: “my father… Continue reading Personalize World Refugee Day
O Emmanuel (Malcolm Guite) O come, O come, and be our God-with-us O long-sought With-ness for a world without, O secret seed, O hidden spring of light. Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame, O quickened little wick so tightly curled, Be folded with… Continue reading For a world without
How could anyone know what it means to promise life-long monogamous fidelity? ... the question is not whether you know what you are promising; rather, the question is whether you are the kind of person who can be held to a promise you made when you did not know what you were promising." Stanley Hauerwas… Continue reading More blessed in you than I know
There aren’t adequate modifiers to describe the horror of the trigger-happy violence - by police and against police - in the U.S. In every way, on every side, this has been a day so despicably devoid of light. And while we rightly feel both outrage and despair, remember, there is another way. Things can be… Continue reading Donuts and prayers as police tools
It’s International Women’s Day. I'm going to keep quiet. She has a voice. Listen to her. Listen to her speak about biblical feminism: Sarah Bessey and Rachel Held Evans Listen to her preach - Brenda Salter McNeill Listen to her speak counter-cultural truth on suffering - Joni Eareckson Tada Listen to her explore and explain… Continue reading Listen to her
Frank Constanza was a minor prophet of sorts. He anticipated the popular new custom to ring in the Christmas season. It's the now traditional "airing of the grievances" over all the competing and corrupting agendas that have "taken over" Christmas (think faux-outrage Starbucks red cup guy). Maybe there are some explanations for this new tradition - the… Continue reading A light so lovely
Squinch 